Evidence of meeting #5 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Mr. Hardie.
We will now go to Mr. Zimmer, for five minutes or less, please.
February 8th, 2022 / 12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to try to make my questions as brief as possible to get through as many as I can.
What direct role did the department take during the recent floods? I'm not talking about the Vancouver downtown office; I'm talking about on the water, on the ground.
Give a quick answer, please.
12:10 p.m.
Director, Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
The quick answer would be that we were supporting the immediate actions required to protect property and people, and, at the same time, trying to give advice to protect the fish—
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
Director, Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
That means we were giving permits to allow work to proceed immediately.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
We have heard from our local guides, and we have seen, as my colleague from Chilliwack has previously mentioned, that a lot of work that was done and a lot of boat fuel was used, but we haven't heard about any compensation.
Is there a plan to compensate them for their efforts? If you're working with them, I would assume there would be some compensation for their assistance.
12:10 p.m.
Director, Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We would have to do a takeaway on that. I don't have any information that would suggest we have compensated any of those people that have done the work you described.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
Senior Director, Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I would just add—
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
I guess I would—
Go ahead, quickly.
12:10 p.m.
Senior Director, Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Sorry, I would just highlight again that we were always a supporting agency in those efforts, largely regulatory, but in some operations on the ground where we could. We were always working—
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
I heard mention of anglers in passing, but I guess I'm concerned. I've seen this before. I know the anglers and the angling community in the Fraser Valley, really across Canada, very well. I haven't seen the department work particularly well with anglers on the ground or on the water.
What role will the department take in working with volunteers, because we see some of the best work done by volunteers? We see salmon restoration happening, again unpaid, yet we've heard of record amounts of money getting dumped into the DFO and little showing up on the water to help the efforts of the volunteers.
We see there's a lot of cleanup and work to be done, as you've mentioned. What role will the department take in working with volunteers to restore the stocks impacted by the floods?
12:10 p.m.
Senior Director, Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I'll just quickly highlight that under the Pacific salmon strategy initiative we are putting an entire pillar and focus around better integration and collaboration.
I've met already with the Lower Fraser Collaborative Table, which is a process that involves anglers, commercial fishers and indigenous representatives, and talked to them not only about fishing impacts but, as you say, their interest in really being part of the solution and leading in a lot of the solutions around fish habitat restoration—
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
I appreciate that, and I just have to go quickly.
What I've heard from some of those conversations is that it seems like there's a meeting and it's a box to be checked, but there's very little listening being done by the department.
I have one last question and comment.
My colleague from Chilliwack as well has really signalled that a mark-selective fishery is very important. The B.C. provincial government has said that the mark-selective fishery is very important to our B.C. salmon stocks. It's even going to be more important as a result of what's happened and the impacts of these recent floods.
What is the department doing now to actually implement a mark-selective fishery?
12:10 p.m.
Senior Director, Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I can quickly take that and just say that one of the key areas and one of the key requirements for considering expansion of further mark-selective fisheries is having the mass marking occurring and in place at our hatchery facilities and—
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
Senior Director, Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Pardon me?
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
We've heard this. This conversation has gone on for 20 years and “considering” doesn't mean anything, frankly.
We actually heard that somebody was supposed to be appointed as a director to oversee the process of establishing the fishery, and you're saying it's just a thought.
What is substantively being done to implement a mark-selective fishery in B.C.?
12:10 p.m.
Senior Director, Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We are in the process of increasing our capacity to do mass marking. That is a key, fundamental first step. This means we mark the fish so that they could be fished in a mark-selective fishery. It will allow for where we can consider doing mark-selective fisheries without impacting wild stocks, but it also has a broader benefit in terms of our stock assessment and using that information—
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
Do you have a timeline of when that's actually going to start?
12:15 p.m.
Senior Director, Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We are looking to expand our mark-selective capacity going forward this coming year, but there are a number of ongoing conversations required with industry around where we can move forward on those mark-selective fisheries' proposals in a precautionary way, so that work will have to happen in parallel.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
Certainly in Washington state it's been done successfully for many years and—
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
We went a little bit over there. We'll now go to Mr. Hanley for five minutes or less, please.